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This Is What Raising a Child Was Like in the 20th Century

New years always get us nostalgic for the past.
We start thinking of a simpler time – you know, the kind when kids played
outdoors, using nothing more than their imagination.

But we’re pretty certain we’re just struck
down with a serious case of grass-is-greener. Because childhoods in the early
20
th century weren’t just different. In most cases, they were far
more difficult too. Let’s face it, kids have it much easier in this millennium.

Kids had it hard, and so did their parents!
Weird parenting advice, strict teachers, child labour, and absent fathers made
childhood a century ago a bizarre and challenging experience for all those
involved.

Parenting Advice Was Pretty Crazy

Bringing home a newborn can be an overwhelming
experience
for any new parent. You can only be so prepared. These days,
through the power of Google, we can look up the answers to any of our concerns –
and get a bit of the right advice too!

As long as you are critical of where you’re
getting advice (Hint: Yahoo Answers is not a good source!) you should be able
to last sometime between visits to the GP and the grandparents.

But back in the day, new parents weren’t
exactly wired up. They often lived away from their parents and family, and doctor’s
visits could be expensive. So many parents relied on old wives’ tales.

But it wasn’t just the old wives’ tales
getting it wrong; science was also all over the place. Advice from doctors and “scientists”
included avoiding the sight of ugly people
lest
your unborn child turn ugly
, and crazy theories about electrical currents
and pointing baby’s head north.

“[A baby] will sometimes cry so hard that
it will get black in the face and may even have a convulsion; occasionally a
small blood vessel may be ruptured on some part of the body, usually the face.
When you see the little one approaching this point, turn it over and administer
a sound spanking and it will instantly catch its breath.”

Yikes.

Mums
Stayed at Home

As a society, we can’t quite get it right.
These days, stay-at-home mums are often the ones taking a hit and finding they
have to justify their choices. About a century ago, mothers were expected to do
all the homemaking.

So how much has really changed? Well, in
the 1950s,
just
19% of American mothers
worked outside the home. By 2008, that figure sat
at 60% for those with kids under 6 and 80% for those with children aged 6-17.

For many, that outside work is welcome
relief – a chance to get away from the baby talk for a while each day or week! And
it’s an opportunity many women 100 years ago were denied. But it also means
that in some ways, respect has diminished for those who choose to stay home –
and many people have forgotten just what a full-time job child-rearing and
homemaking can be!

Dad Did the Discipline – and Little Else

Back when gender roles were firmly binary,
fathers found themselves living in completely separate worlds to mothers and
children.

Being the man of the house meant
breadwinning. Work was the father’s priority. They had to maintain the class
status of the family and make sure the family had enough money for all the
family expenses.

The role men had in their children’s lives
was often limited. They were
the
decision-makers and the disciplinarians
, mostly interacting with the kids
in this capacity (think that familiar admonishment: ‘Wait ‘til your father gets
home!’).

This began to change in the early 20th
century, as advice
from the experts
began to encourage fathers to take a more active role in
the lives of their children. The experts encouraged fathers to start listening
to the child-rearing experts in their homes … their partners!

Teachers Could Hit Your Kids

When you think of schooling today,
sometimes it seems the kids coast through it far too easily. Think of the
kid-friendly playgrounds, the tech-based learning, and some of the subjects on
offer…!

Yeah, it really didn’t used to be like
that. In the late 19
th century, schooling became available to people
of all economic backgrounds. While it had always been available to the wealthy,
public schools began cropping up everywhere.

Corporal punishment was common; teachers could
use canes, paddles, and leather straps to hit misbehaving children on the hands
or bums. Fortunately (for the kids at least!) this was outlawed in most places
in the eighties and nineties.

You Could
Send the Kids Out to Work

These days, kids are freeloaders! They eat
all your food, make you buy them clothes and shoes, and expect a ton of
Christmas presents because of “tradition”.

Not too long ago, they would have been
expected to contribute to the family income, even from as young as ten years
old. A hundred years ago, it was common for the kids from poorer families to
supplement the household income by working.

Of course, we don’t wish this kind of work
on our children these days (at least, not all the time). In urban areas children
often worked crazy hours in dangerous conditions in factories, mills and mines.
While in rural areas, children were expected to help their parents run the
family farm.

Your kids today have benefitted from the hard work of
activists
over the course of the 20th century. Let’s be honest,
today they barely do any household chores and all and will kick up a stink if you
ask them to pick up their Lego.

For some more 21st century-appropriate parenting advice and stories, make sure you check out our other resources on the Bobux blog!